


(once upon a time maybe) you could’ve been mine

by zoeysdianetti



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: F/F, just some gays gaying their heart out, literally nothing else happens, the lovers to enemies to lovers fic no one was waiting for, they’re just very gay okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23898139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoeysdianetti/pseuds/zoeysdianetti
Summary: Joan and Ava have grown apart since college. When their rivalry puts their work in danger, they decide it’s time to talk about some unresolved issues.
Relationships: Joan Bennett/Ava Price
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	(once upon a time maybe) you could’ve been mine

Joan can’t take it anymore. Stealing away her best programmer while she was gone? Sucked, but she could probably manage to move on without Max. Starting a bake-off using Max’s codes? Fine, sure. She would show her how much better the fourth floor is. But _stealing Leif away too?_ That’s where she draws the line.

_Not_ because she has feelings for him. Gross. It’s just because the two of them came up with the whole idea for the Chirp. Leif was her second best programmer. She can’t keep replacing people on the team. This has to stop. Joan gets her phone and calls Ava.

“Seriously?” Joan says as soon as Ava picks up.

“Seriously what?”

“You’re doing all this just to get back at me?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Goodbye Joan.”

Joan groans in frustration when Ava hangs up on her. _Fine_. She’ll just have to go and help out herself then. It’s been a long time since she actually worked as a coder, but she finds herself enjoying it. When Zoey comes in late again, she doesn’t ask any questions, only tells her she’ll take her out for drinks in the evening.

* * *

When Joan finds out Leif has been leaking codes, she decides it’s the perfect opportunity to talk to Ava. She tells her to meet her on the fifth floor, since it’s under construction and nobody ever comes there.

“Why did you want to see me?” Ava asks.

“Two reasons. First of all, someone on your team has been leaking code to my team. The bake-off has been poisoned, we have to stop.”

“Who was it?”

“That doesn’t matter anymore. Secondly, I can’t believe the lengths you are willing to go to get on my nerves. Stealing both Max _and_ Leif away? _Really?_ ”

“You’re flattering yourself, that was not just because of you.”

“Oh _please,_ you never did stuff like this before I broke it off with you. This used to be a playful rivalry, when did it turn into an actual war?”

Ava is quiet and stares at Joan, right into her eyes. Those piercing, blue eyes she used to love. Or, you know, like. She never actually said it out loud. She couldn’t let herself fall for Joan, considering she was a married woman. The day after Joan ended their affair, Ava found out Joan also broke up with Charlie and filed for a divorce.

“This has nothing to do with that,” Ava decidedly says. 

Joan raises her eyebrows.

“Okay, fine. Maybe a little bit. I might be mad at you.”

“Then talk to me about it instead of undermining all my work. You took my two top programmers away, not to mention the fact I had sex with one of them.”

“You had sex with Max?”

Joan sighs and shakes her head, embarrassed by her own poor life choices.

“Yikes. That explains the drawings.”

“Drawings?”

“Nevermind. So what do you want to do now? We clearly can’t continue the bake-off.”

“No. So what if we just, you know, work together? Press pause on this war?”

Ava considers this. “Sure, okay. We could do that. Do you want your coders back?”

“This is not an _“I left some stuff at your house, do you want it back?”_ situation. They’re people, Ava. You promoted them, keep them. It might actually be better for Leif if he doesn’t see me, and frankly, I think Zoey would also profit from a little less Max all around her.”

“Okay. So, what should we do now then?”

“Probably go tell the coders the news and disable the need for an access card to get to the sixth floor,” Joan says.

“Okay, I’ll get on it. We’ll meet on the fourth floor tomorrow morning, I’ll bring my team.”

Joan nods. Ava turns around to leave, but Joan stops her.

“Ava? Do you have plans tonight?”

She looks surprised. “No. Not yet, anyway.

“Do you want to come over? I feel like we have some stuff to talk about.”

Ava can feel her expression turning soft. She smiles at Joan. “I would like that.”

* * *

After work drinks with Zoey turn out to be a total disaster. Joan just wanted to distract Zoey for a moment and be there for her, just like Zoey had been there for her. What did not want was Leif singing to her about how much he loves and misses her. After fleeing the bar, Joan calls Ava to tell her she’s on her way home. Ava says she’ll meet her there, she has to finish some things at work first.

When Joan gets home, Ava’s car is already there. Joan knocks on the window, making Ava look up from her phone. She gets out of the car and they go inside together.

“Do you want anything to drink? Wine?”

Ava nods. “Red, please.”

“I know.”

Joan hands Ava a glass of red wine and pours another one for herself. She dreads sitting down on the couch, afraid of _the talk_ she and Ava really need to have. She has been postponing it for weeks, hoping Ava would just forget about everything and move on. Clearly, that hasn’t been the case. After getting a cheese plate, Joan can’t put it off any longer. She sits down with Ava.

They sit in awkward silence, sipping their wine. Ava is the one to talk first.

“I’m sorry for everything.”

“Me too.”

The conversation immediately dies out again.

“Okay, we can’t just sit here. We have to talk about this,” Joan says eventually. “I shouldn’t have played you for that long. I’m sorry. I was just terrified of losing Charlie.”

“That’s _bullshit_. You don’t care about him, you never have. The thing you were terrified of was being outed.”

Joan doesn’t say anything. She knows Ava is right. When they met in college, they immediately clicked. They did everything together: going to parties, eating out, they even managed to convince the university to let them switch dorms so they could share a room. After graduation, they moved in together for a while, because splitting rent between the two of them was cheaper. All of this was accompanied by make out sessions every once in a while, but never when anyone else was around. It was their little secret, so secret they never even mentioned it afterwards. 

When Joan started rising in the ranks, she moved out and went to live with Charlie, because married women are more likely to be promoted ( _ugh, sexism_ ). Her contact with Ava died out for a few years, until they met again at SPRQPoint. They reconnected, but it got out of hand and they got an affair.

“You’re right. I should have been more like you. _Ugh_ , that sounded gross.”

“Glad to hear you admit it, Joanie.”

Joan cringes at the nickname. Ava started calling her Joanie in college as a joke and it stuck. One thing was important though: only Ava was allowed to call her that. If anyone else tried, both Ava and Joan would get mad.

“Admit what? That it sounded gross?”

“No. That you should have been more like me.”

Unlike Joan, Ava has always been a fearless lesbian. She never hid her sexuality and always called out homophobes. Joan has always aspired to be more like her, but instead she married some boring man she wasn’t even into.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Ava.”

Ava moves in closer and whispers “Well, someone has to,” into Joan’s ear. Joan gets goosebumps all over. She hates that Ava can still do that to her after all those years. Ava sits back again, enjoying the look of terror and, at the same time, attraction in Joan’s eyes.

“I should have told you sooner. About Charlie and me.” Joan pauses. When she started the affair with Ava, she failed to mention that she and Charlie were still married. That only came out three months later. “I just didn’t want to ruin either thing, you know?”

Ava nods. “I get it, okay? But it sucked. I thought we could finally be… you know… It sucked that you kept choosing that pasty white dude over me.”

“We were married for _years_! You can’t just expect me to leave all that behind.”

“I can if you’ve literally said your marriage has always been more of a business! Admit it Joan. You’ve never loved him. You have, however, always loved me.”

“I never said that,” Joan tries, but she knows it doesn’t sound believable.

“You didn’t have to. For fuck’s sake, Joan. You’re a lesbian and you know it.”

Joan wants to get up and walk away. She invited Ava over to make peace, not to fight even more, but she knows that if she walks away now, she proves Ava right. Instead, she chooses a different approach. She moves closer to Ava and stares right into her eyes. It gives her a feeling of power, like she’s in control.

“You don’t know _shit_ about me.”

Ava gets closer too, showing Joan she’s not easily intimidated, and says: “Except I do. I know things you never said to anyone else. Don’t you remember, Joanie? We used to tell each other everything. We were the bestest of friends. _Friends_. Because that’s all you wanted to be, right? Friends who occasionally made out, sometimes even had sex. Do you remember?” Ava pauses. When Joan doesn’t answer, she scoffs. “You never seemed to remember back then either. Always pretended nothing happened the next day.”

Joan doesn’t want to show how much all of this is getting to her. She stares back at Ava. A cold, hard stare. At least, that’s what she’s going for. Instead her eyes trail off and look at Ava’s lips. She catches herself and looks back up, but it’s too late. Ava noticed. Of course she noticed. She smirks.

“What’s wrong Joanie? Do I have something in my teeth?”

Joan wants to say something clever, but her brain has stopped working. Instead, she lets her eyes trail off again. She looks at Ava’s hair. Black and shiny, perfectly combed. Her outfit, professional, yet casual and comfortable. Her hands, holding Joan’s. Wait hold on. _Holding hers?_ How did she not notice that? Joan looks up slowly. When she tilts her head up, her lips meet Ava’s. She tastes like wine and cigarettes, exactly the way Joan remembers her. Joan lets herself go. She gives in to all of Ava’s charms, focusing only on the way her lips feel on hers and how her hands feel on her back.

When Ava pulls away, Joan needs a minute to put herself back together. When she looks at Ava, all she wants to do is grab her and kiss her again. So that’s exactly what she does. She wants Ava. All of Ava. Joan can’t believe she waited this long. For years she was pretending to be happy with Charlie, pretending she never felt anything for Ava. Now that she has Ava, she can’t believe she ever let her go. All she wants to do now is make up for the lost time. 

“I love you,” she breathes against Ava’s lips, right before kissing her again.


End file.
